It all started with the sizzling chicken skewers – the first real meal I ever made for him. I’m not even sure how I knew he would like this, but I was right. But here is the best part – a little taste of the marinade (which some might consider a strange mix of ingredients, but just trust me here) reminded me of the sauce on the Thai linguini dish at CPK and the Cheesecake Factory. And let me tell you, that is one of my favorite dishes as well as Ben’s. Hence the birth of my version of thai linguini, a staple in the first few years of our relationship. I would basically make the sauce from this recipe, ommiting the salt, and add it to a skillet of sauteed chicken and serve over pasta. So delicious, but so terribly caloric and fattening! Over a year ago, I just stopped making it altogether.

Tonight I had planned to make a beef stirfry and realized I had some extra calories to spare, so I thought about how I could re-create that sauce, but with less guilt. Here’s what I mixed together:

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 tsp brown sugar

1 tsp chili garlic sauce (like sriracha)

2 tbsp salsa

1 tbsp peanut butter

juice of 1 lime

1 tsp brown sugar

Added up and divided by two, it’s about 80-85 calories. Not too bad for all that flavor! Here’s what I did with that sauce:

-started cooking jasmine rice

-sliced and sauteed 1/2 lb of lean top round beef in a nonstick skillet, removed when done